If you’re in the mood for some tips, tricks and inspiration regarding the Web world, then there are plenty of conferences and seminars taking place around Australia. They deal with anything from web design, development and marketing, and they are well worth looking into. We’ve put together a list below covering some of these events over the coming months.

Upcoming Events

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ARIA & HTML5 Workshop

Sydney: Tuesday 23rd November. 9.00am – 12.30pm
SMC Conference & Function Centre,
66 Goulburn Street, Sydney 2000

Canberra: Wednesday 24th November. 12.30pm – 4.00pm
Conference Room, National Library of Australia,
Parkes Place, Parkes, ACT

Melbourne: Thursday 25th November. 1.30pm – 5.00pm
Ether Conference Centre (between the Swanston Hotel and Grand Mercure)
265-281 Little Bourke St, Melbourne 3000

Perth: Monday 29th November.
(Venue and time still to be finalised)

Brisbane: Wednesday 1December. 1.30pm – 5.00pm
Cliftons Conference and Seminar rooms
288 Edward Street, Brisbane 4000

Cost
WIPA and AWIA members $60.00
Non-members $90
Morning/afternoon teas will be provided

The workshops are being presented by the Web Industry Professionals Association (WIPA) and the Australian Web Industry Association (AWIA).

Bookings are now open for the ARIA and HTML 5 workshops in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane. Perth bookings will be available in the near future. You can make bookings on the WIPA site at http://wipa.org.au/html5/

WAI-ARIA: Making the interactive web more accessible

Presenter: Steve Faulkner
I will make a serious attempt to demystify ARIA. Outlining its major aspects and how it works under the hood to improve the user experience. I’ll talk about what it is and what it is not, when and where it should be used, explaining the advantages and the pitfalls. I’ll also go into how it fits into the emerging HTML5 UI ecosystem. Don’t expect any live screen reader demonstrations (but maybe a video or 2).

There will be slides, code and developer tool demonstrations and expect some lively debate on the topics of HTML5, ARIA and accessibility with my co-presenter Bruce.

Steve Faulkner
Steve is the Technical Director at The Paciello Group (TPG). He leads the development of the Web Accessibility Toolbar, Color Contrast Analyser and AViewer accessibility testing tools. He is an active member of the W3C HTML Working Group and W3C Protocols and Formats Working Group. His work in these groups is focused on HTML5 canvas accessibility, use of WAI-ARIA in HTML5 and he is editor of the W3C Draft Specification HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives. Steve regularly publishes articles and research on accessibility issues on the TPG blog.

HTML5: The good, the bad and the quite interesting

Presenter: Bruce Lawson
I’ll introduce the new features of HTML5 and show why it can help you make more robust and accessible web apps using open standards. I’ll look deeply at the new semantic elements, adding intelligent forms that can remove the need for JavaScript validation, and adding native video to a page that doesn’t use plugins (although degrades to Flash in older browsers). We’ll look at the new APIs for canvas, Geolocation, etc – what they can do and how simple the syntax is.

The workshop will be a mixture of slideware, live coding and in-browser demos. It’s intended for those who write mark-up, and doesn’t expect deep JavaScript knowledge (we look at the potential of the APIs but not the intricacies of coding).

We emphasise simplicity of authoring and accessibility of the user experience.
Bruce Lawson
Bruce evangelises Open Web Standards for Opera. He’s been active in Web Standards since 2002, working with the Web Standards Project, the British Standards Institution’s guidance on commissioning accessible web sites. He’s currently on the W3C Mobile Best Practices Working Group and co-authored “Introducing HTML5″ (www.introducinghtml5.com), the first full-length book on the subject. He once had a girlfriend named Sheila, although neither were Australian.

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webDU – Sydney 14th-15th April 2011
WebDU is a growing web technology conference that discusses what is new, while also providing training on experience in the process.

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Events That Have Past for 2010 – look out for them around the same time in 2011:

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Web Forward – Look out for it in May 2011
Web Forward is part of the CeBIT conference and features information on everything from search to social media.

These events have already occurred this year, but they are definitely worth checking out in the next. Get the calender out now to avoid disapointment. These events usually occurr around the same time each year.
A 2011 calender list will be available here towards the end of the year.

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DevFest – June 28 to July 2, 2010 in Sydney
Brought to you by Google, this week-long event full of mini-conferences deals with topics relating to Google developer topics, such as Chrome, SEO, Wave and Apps.

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Web Industry July 7, 2010 (6:00 pm) in Perth
Port80 is a gathering of web industry professionals to network and connect with others in a casual environment.

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Joomla Day – Australia-wide
Joomla Days occur in various cities across the country, and those involve lectures, workshops and training using the popular CMS tool. Many have already passed for the year, but it is a good idea to check the website for future dates.In addition, there are also Joomla User Groups that meet as well for less intense Joomla sessions:

–Sydney: Tue 13 July,
–Melbourne: Wed 21 July,
–Canberra: 1st Monday Monthly,
–Adelaide: Thurs 17 June,

–Perth: Mon 2 November 2010

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UX Australia – August 25-27, 2010 in Melbourne

UX Australia is a user experience conference that takes place over three days – two of which are for presentations, and one of which is for workshops.

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Oz-IA/2010 Conference – Oct.8, 2010 in Sydney
The Oz-IA Conference is a two-day conference that covers information architecture and includes presentation, workshops and networking.

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Web Directions South – Oct.12–15, 2010 in Sydney
Web Directions South is one of the biggest web-related events in the world, and it makes its way to Australia in October. It features days of events that deal with development, design and networki

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Thanks Krystie for passing on all the information from the Australian Web Awards.

Australian Web Awards ‘cocktails with a twist’
- Monday 11 October 2010, City Hotel, Sydney
It’s a tradition to run an AWIA Port80 during Web week, well this time we are going crazy and stepping it up a notch, because we know you can take it! Come celebrate the best of the Web with the Australian Web Awards “cocktails with a twist” evening in Sydney as part of Web Week.

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Australian Web Awards ‘taking hold…..of your mobile”
– Tuesday 26th October, Hotel Urban, Brisbane
Get the buzz on the latest for mobile design and development from two of the industries leading practitioners, Oliver Weidlich (Mobile Experience) and Chris Mills (Opera). Also come celebrate the best of the Web with AWIA and the Australian Web Awards presentations evening in Brisbane!

Australian Web Awards’ Gala Dinner
- Saturday 6th November, Parmelia Hilton, Perth
WA and National award presentations
Last but not least there will be the WA State Awards and at the peak of this frenzy we’ll finish with the National Awards!

So, if you’re in WA, or you’re a State finalist and in the running for a National gong or if you need an excuse for a trip west and a celebration then this is your night of nights.

This list is definitely not complete! If you know of an event that should be added, please drop it in the comments below. We’ll be updating it periodically.